Product Description

In Defiant Grace, Dane Ortland calls Christians back to the beauty of the gospel of grace. He shows how in many ways, we have domesticated the message of Jesus, and conformed him to our image, rather than transforming us into his.

The real question is not how to avoid becoming a Pharisee; the question is how to recover from being the Pharisees that we already are...Law feels safe; grace feels risky. Rule-keeping breeds a sense of manageability; grace feels like moral vertigo. --From the Introduction

Publisher's Description

When God-in-the-flesh showed up twenty centuries ago in Palestine, the religious PhDs rejected him and the prostitutes and social outcasts flocked to him. Why? Because the open welcome of divine grace that Jesus offered, open to anyone who would simply leave their moral resume at home, is not predictable. It is not safe. It is defiant. This book exists to exult in this good news and the scandalous mercy Jesus loves to pour out on needy sinners--on people like you and me.

Endorsements

"I love the goal of Dane Ortlund's Defiant Grace: to fill our heart tanks with 'the high-octane grace that takes our conscience by the scruff of the neck and breathes new life into us with a pardon so scandalous that we cannot help but be changed.' This is the kind of grace that makes disciples so love the Saviour that they will give their lives for his glory." --Bryan Chapell, President, Covenant Theological Seminary

"Dane Ortlund can flat-out write. He is a craftsman of prose, and more: he writes with theological discernment and an eye for heart application. To read this book is to have a surprising encounter with the Saviour. Dane walks us through the four Gospels, highlighting Christ's astonishing words and actions--actions never more astonishing than at Calvary. More than anything, as I read these pages I was reminded of the Saviour's stunning love for me and of his defiant grace--grace that is shockingly unmeasured, vast and free." --C.J. Mahaney, President, Sovereign Grace Ministries

"Dane Ortland's Defiant Grace is a very helpful guide to a gospel-centered understanding of Christianity. Drawing from material gleaned from all four Gospels, Ortlund presents us with the compelling picture of 'defiant grace'--so different from the pale and timid imitation of pallid amaemic religion. Read this book and soak in the gospel of grace!" --Josh Moody, Senior Pastor, College Church, Wheaton

"The world wants justice and, truth to tell, the church often wants that too. In this book, Dane Ortlund makes the case from the Gospels that what the church and the world to whom she witnesses needs is grace. Grace is counter-intuitive, beyond price and yet totally free. Left to ourselves, we hate it. We see it as demeaning. We regard it as witnessing to our moral corruption and weakness. Yet grace is God's way of salvation as revealed in the acts and sayings of Jesus in the four Gospels. This book is that strangest of things: the heartfelt rebuke which brings so much encouragement, freedom and joy. Well worth reading." --Carl R. Trueman, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

ChristianBookPreviews.com

In his own words, the purpose of Dane Ortlunds latest book, Defiant Grace: The Surprising Message and Mission of Jesus, is to "peel away the accretions of attempts to domesticate Jesus." The domesticated Jesus offers just enough grace to liberate the sinner and restore his broken relationship with God. This alone would be cause for great celebration, to be sure, but Ortlund points out that if we stop there we will miss a richer understanding of God's grace just waiting to be unearthed in the four gospels.

From the beginning, Jesus has been anything but predictable. Ortlund highlights four of his stunning surprises. In the book of Matthew, Jesus turned the religious community on its ear by pointing out that "the deepest distinction among human beings is not between the bad and the good, but between those who know they are bad and those who do not." By exposing the smug moralism in each self-righteous heart, Jesus made level the ground at the cross. "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10). In the book of Mark, Jesus blew the vision of a conquering king out of the water by condescending to the cross; a death reserved for the vilest criminal. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus completely reshaped the notion of who should be included in the kingdom of heaven and who should not by redefining those on the "inside" and those on the "out." Finally, in the book of John, Jesus shook the contemporary Greek and Jewish conception of God by merging the idea of Creator and creature through the revelation of his own deity; Immanuel -- God with us.

Two thousand years later, Jesus is still shaking things up and Ortlund offers a fresh look that extends us beyond our comfort zone. Whether we are new to the Christian faith or weve found a home there years ago, Ortlund challenges us to open our eyes to the wonder of God's amazing and defiant grace. - Ann Sullivan, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com

Publisher's Weekly

Ortlund (A New Inner Relish: Christian Motivation in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards), a Bible editor, believes in the power of grace in the Christian life. To that end he has penned a detailed, yet approachable, study of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) to help readers remember and cherish the grace of God in the face of human addiction to pride and strict legalism. Pulling from a variety of evangelical Christian sources, Ortlund elucidates themes similar to Timothy Keller's popular Prodigal God, but with less passion, poetry, and readability. Derived from a Bible study class, the book reads as such without being overly cerebral. While his analysis tends toward excessive detail, Ortlund is able to sum up important points in memorable one liners ("Penitent hookers enter heaven ahead of smug virgins.") Ortlund comes across as a more academic than popular writer, but his effort to appeal to a broad audience is commendable. Copyright 2011 Reed Business Information.

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